Starters

The long awaited meeting of Race Starters from around the Country took place last Monday. At this stage, I have yet to hear any feedback, however the Trainers & Drivers were represented at the get together by Northern Chair Jay Abernethy and Jim Curtin.

One issue that I had brought up with the RIU and was supported by them was that, should the barrier strands fail, the restart should feature a hand held scenario, so that the risk of a double false start could be eliminated.

Obviously, whether the meeting was successful and the desired consistency achieved will be seen in the future.

I know race starts are a favourite target of many people in the Industry, but the public perception is not helped by the comments of some, and in particular one, commentator who, despite being totally aware of neither the Rules or the circumstances surrounding the incident, goes on ad nauseum about the apparently farcical nature of what happened, and criticising the powers commissioned to handle the matter. It is not a commentators job to decide on judicial matters, and trying to be clever about it is both unbecoming and unprofessional.

Pete Cook